Interest rates could be set to rise earlier than expected as new figures reveal UK unemployment is now at a near five-year low.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the UK jobless rate falling to 7.1% in the quarter to November, with an additional 280,000 people finding work during the same period.

The drop means that unemployment is close to reaching the 7% threshold set by the Bank of England required for considering the raising of interest rates.

The improvement in UK jobs was widely welcomed by politicians but the possible implications for interest rate policy - which could affect the cost of mortgages and business borrowing - was carefully scrutinised by economists.

Interest rates have been held at an historic low of 0.5% since March 2009, with the Bank of England setting a "forward guidance" target for raising rates of 7% unemployment last August.

The guidance was designed to give confidence to households and firms that access to finance would remain cheap while the economy was nursed back to health.

At the time of setting the guidance policy, the Bank's forecasts for unemployment meant officials did not expect to have to consider raising them until late 2016 at the earliest.

The unexpected good news on unemployment has fuelled speculation that policy makers will now change the guidance, by lowering the target to 6.5%, to head off fears of a rate rise.

There have also been suggestions of linking a change to an increase in wage growth to above the level of inflation.

Recently released minutes of the Bank's meeting earlier this month showed the nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) saw "no immediate need to raise rates" regardless of plunging unemployment.

Committee members conceded however that the 7% threshold could be reached "materially earlier than previously expected".

Andrew Goodwin, senior economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club, said: "We expect the threshold to be lowered to 6.5%, but the MPC should not stop there; an additional condition based on real wage growth should be introduced.

"As the minutes make clear, there is no prospect of a rate rise in the near future. Raising interest rates too soon, before real wages have begun to improve and growth has broadened out, could risk choking off the fragile consumer-led recovery."

The welcome news on a fall in the jobless rate is tempered with figures that show 2.32 million remain out of work in the UK.

The ONS data also showed that despite inflation slowing to 2%, pressure on household incomes remained as wage growth lagged behind at 0.9%